Image Input Support to the Attribute Node Workflow
I’d like to propose adding an Image input socket in Geometry Nodes (for example in Store Named Attribute or a similar node).
Right now, if you want to use an image inside Geo Nodes and access it in the Shader Editor, you typically pass data through a Color socket as an attribute. This works, but it doesn’t allow proper image mapping and feels like a workaround.
There’s currently no way to pass an Image datablock reference directly from Geometry Nodes to a material.
Why this would help:
1-Cleaner workflow between Geo Nodes and Shader Editor
2-No more relying on Color sockets as a hack
3-Better support for image-driven procedural systems (decals, masks, logo projection, etc.)
The goal would be to pass an actual Image datablock reference, not sampled pixel color data.
Would this be feasible within the current node architecture?
1 Comment
It is planned to add an Image socket type in the shaders later, or at least the idea is already existing in the developper's mind, but its implementation it quite hard because of how the images work in Blender in general. An image is a datablock and not an attribute of some sort. You probably noticed the colorspace of an image is only controlable in shaders, not in Geometry nodes, and the colorspace applies for all the nodes referencing this image. But we should see in the upcoming updates a way to input an image datablock in the shaders without setting it on the image texture node itself.
As for your problem, it looks like you mainly want to transfer the coordinates of the texture from geonodes to shaders, to avoid relying on geometry density for texture quality. Try storing the vector coordinates that you're using in geonodes as a vector attribute and using this attribute as coordinates in your shaders. If that's not the case, excuse me! I just hope to be able to help you ;)